Oh, that's a very good point about Radoub's frame of reference. I mean, yes, I figured that he was operating from a totally different frame of reference, but I was a bit boggled by how he seemed so slow to grasp how different hers was, as though by browbeating her he would get her to understand that she should consider herself French and the blue/white divisions important and relevant. (Not that they aren't, but personally I would think giving her some more bread and some bandages on her feet would be a useful first step before you get to the teachable moments. And I didn't mean that he is self-absorbed so much as that he comes across a bit as such in this scene -- I don't know him very well yet, after all.) But I hadn't quite made the mental leap to some of his stubbornness on this score being specifically because of his life-or-death worries, rather than existing alongside it.
As for the "feminine bravery" thing, I expect to have a lot more moments of mixed feelings like that about ladies in this book, because, well, Hugo and the 19th century. A lot of moments with both Michelle and Houzarde ("the mother" and "the vivandière," but I like giving them their names even if it's noteworthy that Hugo doesn't) struck me that way, of course, as they presumably struck us all -- the way that Houzarde instantly gravitates to the children, for example, mitigated by other things she does and by the way the soldiers are drawn to them too.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: General reaction
Date: 2014-04-22 08:40 pm (UTC)As for the "feminine bravery" thing, I expect to have a lot more moments of mixed feelings like that about ladies in this book, because, well, Hugo and the 19th century. A lot of moments with both Michelle and Houzarde ("the mother" and "the vivandière," but I like giving them their names even if it's noteworthy that Hugo doesn't) struck me that way, of course, as they presumably struck us all -- the way that Houzarde instantly gravitates to the children, for example, mitigated by other things she does and by the way the soldiers are drawn to them too.